Just days ago, CBN News reported on backlash caused by an Amnesty International report accusing Israel of being an apartheid state. One result of the fallout shines the light on a major issue basically ignored by this group that purports to end abuses of human rights.

The amnesty international report concluded that “Israel’s cruel policies of segregation, dispossession and exclusion across all territories under its control clearly amount to apartheid.” 

Apartheid refers to the South African policy of separating blacks and whites, which existed for more than 40 years. It ended in the mid-1990’s.   

“Amnesty and the UN, which is going to be joining the effort by describing Israel as an apartheid state isn’t getting it wrong, they’re getting it an opposite of the truth,” says legal expert Prof. Eugene Kontrovich.

Kontorovich explains his conclusion in a piece published by the Wall Street Journal titled “There’s Apartheid in The Holy Land, But it’s Not in Israel.” 

“Israel is a country where Arabs participate in all walks of public life, hold positions in the government,” he says. “In Israel, Arabs and Jews mingle, in cafes and on busses, in all public places. But right next door, in those areas of the Holy Land run by the Palestinian Authority, real apartheid is practiced.”

Kontorovich points out the PA has a law that calls for the death penalty if a Palestinian sells land to a Jew. Back in November, CBN News asked the Palestinian Authority’s Prime Minister about that law.   

“Land in Palestine is not a real estate issue. Land in Palestine is a political issue. So therefore, the Palestinian law does not allow land to be sold to non-Palestinians,” Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh told CBN News.

Another controversial government policy is referred to as pay to slay. That program rewards terrorists convicted of killing Jews. 

“Israel is not sponsoring a program of pay to slay against Palestinians,” Kontorovich says. “The Palestinian Authority government supported by Western governments … funds a pay to lay program to pay for the murder of Jews.”  

Kontorovich says through all its laws and policies the PA has created a Jew-free zone.    

“When you at the areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority, it’s not that there’s no separation between Jews and Arabs, there’s just no Jews. Because they have created a Jew-free state and they have enforced this through official methods.”

Despite these policies, it’s a situation seldom reported on by Amnesty International, the UN and other human rights groups. 

HD Editor’s Note: Why Is This News Biblically Relevant?

Pastor Barry Stagner of Calvary Chapel Tustin, in his most recent episode of “The Line Up,” explained the true history of “Palestine,” which is deliberately disregarded.

“We have so many nations supporting this and even Christians getting behind this thinking that the Palestinians are an actual people group (which they are not; they’re just Arabs) and that Israel has no right [to exist, but] came in and took land that was rightfully the Palestinians,” Stagner said.

“[This] is such an important reminder of why we need to know history, especially the history of Israel,” he urged. “In 136 AD, Hadrian, the Roman emperor, because of his hatred for the Jews, renamed the land of Israel ‘Palestina.’ Palestine is the Latinized form of the ancient arch-enemies of Israel, the Philistines. He renamed the land after the Philistines in order to get at the Israelis. He did not allow the word ‘Jew’ to be used. He would not allow two Jews to be seen walking together, and he killed hundreds of thousands of Jews because of his hatred for them.”

“Palestine was previously known as Israel,” Pastor Stagner continued. “If you want to look at it from that particular lens, that means the Palestinians, and even at the turn of the previous century, whenever a news report spoke about the Palestinians, they were talking about the Jews who lived in the area known as Palestine.”

“The word Palestine or Philistine means immigrant or invaders. The Philistines were occupiers. They were also known in history as the Aegean sea people. They are from the island of Crete, and they’re not Arabs; they’re Cretans. They would go and invade other countries and set up colonies there, as was the tradition of many nations in that day,” he explained. “They were immigrants; they were occupiers. So to make this claim that ‘we have the right as Palestinians’ is basically an association and admission that they’re the immigrants.”

Those who call themselves “Palestinians” today are not, however, the same ethnicity as the philistines described in scripture. In fact, the ancient philistines are a people group that no longer exists.

Furthermore, prior to the re-establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, the Bible provides a description of just how desolate the land would be (Ezekiel 36).

Ezekiel‬ ‭36:34-35, 37‬ ‭KJV‬‬ – “And the desolate land shall be tilled, whereas it lay desolate in the sight of all that passed by. And they shall say, This land that was desolate is become like the garden of Eden; and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are become fenced, and are inhabited… Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will yet for this be enquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them; I will increase them with men like a flock.”

Mark Twain passing through the land confirmed how desolate and uninhabited it previously was in his 1867 book “Innocents Abroad.”

“There is not a solitary village through its whole extent – not for 30 miles in either direction. There are two or three small clusters of Bedouin tents, but not a single permanent habitation. One may ride 10 miles, hereabouts, and not see 10 human beings… Of all the lands there are for dismal scenery, I think Palestine must be the prince…” Twain wrote 80 years before the nation of Israel was born, and the land bloomed, becoming green and lush.

Although the world may look at Israel and automatically see red, to the Believer in Jesus Christ, the reborn State of Israel should arouse awe of God and hope.

Thousands of years ago, God promised that Israel would again become a nation under miraculous circumstances (Ezekiel 36, 37, Isaiah 66:7-8). This is especially important because Jesus told His disciples that when Israel is reborn, one generation would not pass away before His Second coming (Matthew 24:32-34).

Therefore the nation of Israel has been used to bless believers yet again, with the joyful expectation of our Blessed Hope, the soon catching away of the Bride Of Christ to forever be with the Lord in the Rapture of the church (1 Thess. 4:15-18, Titus 2:13, 1 Corin. 15:51-53).

If you do not know Christ, seeing the nation of Israel should promote urgency in you to accept Jesus today. Satan hates Israel, and he hates you also. But God displayed His power to us, through the rebirth of Israel and by countless other means, that we may come to know Him and the saving knowledge of His Son, Jesus Christ (John 14:29).

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